'95 Quake Awakened Japan To Necessity Of Preparation

December 27, 2000|By Uli Schmetzer, Tribune Foreign Correspondent.

TOKYO — Six years ago next month, a killer earthquake struck the port city of Kobe, burying thousands of people, homes and the myth that Japanese planning skills could cope with a disaster of such magnitude.

Since then, successive governments have tried to erase the debacle with a $180 billion budget to upgrade rescue and relief operations in a country that registers thousands of tremors annually.

In a way, the Kobe quake that struck at 5:46 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1995, has served as a wake-up call for Japan and other quake-prone regions in the world by exposing a nation that lived for centuries above a geological time bomb but failed to make adequate preparations.

The time bomb is still ticking.

The government's Earthquake Research Committee recently predicted there was an 80 percent chance a major offshore quake would hit the Tokyo area within 20 years.

A report by the committee concluded the temblor would measure a magnitude 7.5 to 8, compared to 7.3 in the Kobe quake, and would kill at least 1,300 people. It would be followed by a huge tsunami.

Kobe's earthquake offered a lesson for Japan, a country where no one moves without an order: In an emergency, when minutes count, the shorter the chain of command the better the results.

In 1995, as Kobe burned, Japanese citizens saw the extent of official bungling, the lack of foresight, the sight of bent bridges and humped highways that experts had boasted would never buckle.

Critics found there had been no plans to supply water or food to devastated areas. Communications were blacked out in a nation proud of its telephone system.

For hours after the quake converted large parts of Kobe into rubble and cinders, Tokyo's main emergency coordination agency was still unaware of what had happened.

The agency jumped into action only after its first employee walked into his office at 9:26 a.m., nearly fours hour after the quake hit.

"Fortunately he was 34 minutes early for work," said Ryo Sasaki, current director for Disaster Prevention at Japan's National Land Agency, the department responsible for coordinating public safety.

"We had no damage report. No one had mobilized the rescue operations and there was delay in the request for nationwide aid. No one could react without higher permission.

"Even the National Defense Force [the military] was not allowed to move without an official request by the local or central authorities," he recalled.

Today Sasaki's agency is staffed around the clock. Even he works the overnight shift once a week. About 100 public officials on the emergency committee now carry pagers and are supposed to be able to meet within 30 minutes of a disaster.

The Japan Meteorological Agency, the country's quake-monitoring entity, now compiles daily data from 3,800 seismic stations, seismographs and strain meters placed near active fault lines up and down the archipelago. The data allow experts to quickly pinpoint a quake's epicenter and determine the magnitude and likely damage.

Quake monitors can alert the media and local security, fire brigade and police chiefs within two minutes of identifying and locating a quake area. The heads of local task forces can make decisions, although some may decide to consult higher ranks first.

More than six hours after the Kobe quake hit, the prime minister's office, the main command post for all emergencies, was still unaware of the magnitude of the disaster. Estimates wrongly placed the death toll at well below 500. In reality, by that time most of the 6,432 casualties had died. Those who were trapped and wounded waited in vain for help. Underestimation of the toll initially led officials to treat the situation as a lesser-grade emergency.

Such blunders were kept quiet for a long time in a country where a patriarchal officialdom tries to protect the public from the bitter truth.

Sasaki blames the slow initial reaction on lack of communications and lack of information. Private telephone lines were not cut by the quake but were blocked by overloaded exchanges as millions simultaneously tried to call for help or let loved ones know they had survived. And instead of trying to help those trapped, other survivors lined up at public pay phones whose exchanges still functioned to make calls.

In their barracks, members of the Japanese military waited for orders to mobilize all day--and some part of the next day. The National Defense Force is the main rescue task force in cases of national disaster.

Firefighters helped rescue trapped residents instead of fighting the fires that eventually killed most of the victims. Roads were blocked by debris, hospitals were inaccessible and rescuers focused on what Sasaki calls a "first come, first served basis."

Under the new plan, advance teams will plant red, blue, green and yellow priority flags in devastated sites to guide rescue squads to the most needy areas.

And recent improvements in collecting data on tremors will be useful when the next big quake strikes Japan.